Zugg Software :: View topic

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 11

I have read over the posts in this forum, and of the posts I could decipher, this hasn't really been addressed. Again, I may have missed it, because I'm not a programmer and about half of what is posted here might as well be Martian.

What I'm having trouble with is this: Multiplaying. As in having three or four characters connected to the same MUX at the same time. I can't seem to do it in CMUD. I tried, and it took Character A, disconnected it, then opened an itty bitty window with Character B's info to connect with. Character B's window was unrecognizable - no command line, my buttons were gone, etc.

Okay. I could deal with that. I went "huh???" and closed it all. Then when I tried to open Character A again, the whole mess popped up again - it never connected Character A, but the window for it was open (with the buttons moved to that default top position, aggravatingly enough), and it opened that teeny, featureless window and connected Character B. So it seems to have LOST all my triggers, speed menu items and buttons for those two characters. Thank heavens I didn't open all four!!!

I had NO problem doing this in zMUD. I was able to connect all my characters to the same MUX at once, and each one had its own nice neat tab across the top. CMUD does not seem to be able to handle this; it's as though it can't multitask or something, to the point where it goes berserk and loses all my settings and merges two characters. I hope there is a way to fix this, because multiplaying is VERY common in the non-combat roleplaying genre.

I've driven myself nuts wading through all the new terminology and can't see straight anymore. (Would it have killed you to keep calling them 'characters', for example? I see a 'session' as a gaming session - one chunk of time spent playing. The term is misleading, at best.) I can't find the answer if I don't know what the heck you're talking about. Is there some sort of translation chart or "Session = Character" help file?

Anyway, if anyone has the answer to make it so I can multiplay again, I'd be ever so grateful. And if they would phrase it in plain English, they would be diety-like in my eyes. Not all of us are programmers. Believe it or not, I use your software to relax and play games, not to learn code or whatever. *smiles wearily*

Thank you in advance!

Going back to zMUD (which is looking more user-friendly every microsecond I work with CMUD) until there's a working answer...

SapphireSage

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:39 am

I just tried to connect to two separate muds (aetolia/imperian) and was unable to as well. First time I've tried.

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 11:09 am

Open your main Session, then use the drop down arrow on the Session button, do not choose the Session icon but instead scroll past the usual Session listing until you see the listing of the hosts and ports and choose the one that corresponds to the address of your main Session.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

A session does not mean a character. One "session" can contain windows for more than one character, more than one connection to the same or different hosts (a host is network address). You should not open more than one copy of the same session at once, or there will be conflicts.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 11

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:08 pm

SapphireSage, if I understand what you're saying correctly then what your asking can not be done. Instead you would need to launch two instances of CMUD to accomplish that. Of course, if I'm wrong Zugg will correct me.

You can find out more about multiplaying here

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 11

Actually, I was about to post that the method described above by Taz, where you use the drop down menu instead of clicking the Session button, works.

I am currently logged into my usual haunt with four characters (it's a roleplaying MUX, not a combat thing, and totally permissible with them), and I did it by opening one session, then opening the others from that drop down menu.

Thank you, Taz, for the answer. I just wonder, though, why that should work differently from selecting it with the Sessions button and the window. *shrugs* Not a big deal, though, now that I know how to do it.

Thanks!

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

Tech, that article has not been fully updated for CMUD IMHO. It needs more work.

sapphiresage, what you are doing with the Taz's method or the New Connection command (which does the same thing) is creating a new unnamed session. One option I should have mentionned earlier is creating a Session for each character. Then adding the package with all the settings you want for all chars on that mud to each session. I think this should work, but I haven't tried it yet. To save time you can also add this package as one of your default package (via Preferences) and it will automatically be added to all new sessions you create.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 11

Oh lord. Don't get me started on 'packages'. I tried that 'package' junk, and managed to get everything screwed up to the point where I had to start from scratch again. Either I didn't get it, or it didn't work like it was supposed to. No thanks. It ended up being far simpler doing it the long way.

I created each session individually, logging in only that character and setting up all the buttons and triggers in each one. Each session was given the name of that character. So when I go to the drop down menu, I have (for example) "Character A", "Character B", "Character C", and "Character D". I just select the one I want to open in addition to the one I already have open, and it opens in a new tab. Just exactly what I wanted. I'm not creating new, unnamed connections. I'm selecting the session (in this case, character) I want from the list.

Now that I have it looking and behaving almost exactly like zMUD, it's becoming tolerable. Let's hope when I shut it down later tonight and open it again, it still behaves itself. That'll be the true test.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

You better check that is saves any settings you create. I *think* Zugg added a confirmation box asking if you want to save the session when you exit if you create an unnamed session the way you have been doing. But if you create lots of settings, you better check before you press Quit. ;)

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 11

*Sighs*

Even though I created all those settings before I opened the sessions from the drop down menu, CMUD fried them. And did something so that there are more packages marked active for each session than I think there should be.

Why are the packages cross-bleeding into other sessions? I didn't tell them to! I didn't want them to!

And dang it - where the heck are my buttons and triggers if the "package" that has them is checkmarked in that stupid box? It's like it's ignoring my settings while saying "yep I'm using these".

Just when I think I'm doing it right, it slaps me in the face.

Hang it all.

Going back to zMUD. Too ticked off right now to pursue this.

If someone fixes it, fabulous.

Newbie Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 6

I have managed, after much difficulty, to create two sessions that each connect to one mud, and have their own packages, while using a shared 'autologin' package for that mud. The bad news is that it's freakin rediculous to do.

I'd use just one session, with each char in it's own window, but if you put more than one character under one session, it opens all of them when you open that session. For those of us with upwards of 20 alts, this gets bad.

I would propose an easier (it is possible, but I'd like EASIER) way of creating and using alts.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 11

*chuckles* I would propose someone make it work the way it did in zMUD. It was very simple to do. One icon in the opening window (character screen) equals one connection, whether that be a specific character or a generic connection to the MU* that you can use to log in whatever character you feel like.

Personally, I prefer to spend hours playing my characters, not hours playing with my client.

Gauther, did your two sessions that connect to one MUD survive the shutdown/restart test?

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 9:40 am

This topic, discusses the design of multiple sessions. It might help to have some perspective on the design decisions that went into CMUD with regards to multi-play.

http://forums.zuggsoft.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=24168

This second one, is a precursor to the first one and has some discussion about packages, modules and multiple sessions. It's a bit long though.

http://forums.zuggsoft.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=24065

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:00 pm

So, just to understand this better myself, cause i'm an idiot, are we talking about connecting to 2 different games, or 2 connections to the same game?

2 diff games:
Zmud you'd just go File > Open and up would pop the char session selector. Has this been removed/modified/nerfed? The problem with this was always that if you are playing a mud where you don't have windows tabbed, and then opened one that was, everything got screwed up. You'd have to open the windowed one 1st, THEN the non.

MP'ing
Wouldn't you just make 2 seperate icons for it? Used to play on a mud that allowed MP'ing and I had to have 2 icons on the char select screen.

of course i could just be misunderstanding the whole thread here.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

Yeah, in zMUD, 7.x I also found my layouts didn't work well when multiplaying (perhaps as I had tabbed child windows defined).

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 11

See now, for me it was perfect the way it was. CMUD came along and made it horribly, terribly complicated.

Vitae: They have made what you just descibed impossible without opening a new instance of the program for each character, as far as I can tell. And that's what I'm doing in here - trying to see if someone can come up with a way to do it without having a dozen copies of CMUD running at once.

I think though, that I'm just going to have to stay with zMUD, since it works beautifully for me. Not a hardship to stay with what works!

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 11

Vitae: Yes, I'm talking about multiplaying. I usually have about four characters connected to the same MUX at once. And in zMUD, it was very simple. Just create a Character for each one, and click their icons to open them. I ended up with four tabs across the top, each one with the name of the character logged in through that window. Very sweet. Very simple. Very clean.

You can't do that with CMUD. I tried. I created four separate sessions, each one named after a character, and when I tried to open them like I normally do, all h*ll broke loose. It mixed the settings for each Session all together, created new windows within tabs, and all sorts of weird stuff. It looked like a Trek transporter accident!

I've tried several of the suggestions here, but none have worked. I really want to avoid bogging my system down with multiple instances of CMUD running, but so far that may be the only thing that works. Seem ridiculous that this shiny new whiz-bang program can't handle something so incredibly simple, but newer isn't always better.

I hope Zuggsoft keeps zMUD available so those of us who stick with it can still redownload/relicense when we need to.

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:45 pm

Sapp, I got one word for ya, "EEWWW!!"
I would hope that somewhere along the line that the need to open seperate instances is something that will be taken care of.

THO, as a suggestion? if you usually play the same muds and don't have any windows open (chats, etc..) why not just have a layout with all the muds in it. that way you can just #discon from one, tab over to another tab, #conn in the other...
Not a pretty work around, but might help?

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 11

I like flexibility. I may not want to play all four characters that time. I may only want one, or any combination of the four.

And why mess with something that doesn't really do what I need when zMUD does it so perfectly?

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:49 pm

Sorry, I shoulda said more before the send, you can have a layout with multiple players on it.
open up all the characters, and save the layout. on the char screen open up that layout. it will open up all the char screens.
of course, i'm talking about zmud, and don't know how/if this works in cmud. Tho i think it does based on a reply from zugg in one of my posts.
http://forums.zuggsoft.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=99793&highlight=#99793

Just go offline, and connect which ever you want.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 11

Oh, I know that. I just like to have them separate so I can just choose which I want to open that time. It takes very little time in zMUD to click "Characters" and open the next one I want opened. *shrugs* It works the way I do it. I like the way I do it.

It's the fact that I can't do it in CMUD that's irritating the carp outta me. But I'm going to let that go and just stick with zMUD. I don't need the stress of learning about 'packages' and how they relate to 'sessions' and all the other junk.

I play in MU*s to relax for a few hours. Not to fight with my client over how things are going to look or be done. CMUD forgets who's boss and does whatever the heck it wants to with my layouts, buttons and triggers, rather than what I told it to do. Not cool.

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 4:10 pm

*snicker* i hear ya.
To many issues for me still in cmud to bother with. wondering if the free version of cmud that i got for the purchase is even gonna be bothered with by me.

Newbie Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 6

Yeah.... two different icons doesn't work like it used to on zmud anymore.

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 8:29 pm

Yes, there are multiplaying bugs in CMUD. These have taken a lower priority compared to other bugs that effect more people. But this is STILL A BETA version. If you are not willing to post useful and helpful bug reports, then stop using the beta version and try it again after the public release.

If you don't want to learn new features that might help make your MUD sessions better, then you might as well be using telnet or some free client. I have no patience for people who are unwilling to even read the documentation to learn about new features like packages.